RALLY >>> IRC
A
fter a run of six full
years the independent
IRC series have come
to an end, on account
of the newly ordained elevation
in status of the FIA’s official
regional championships.
Victims in many ways of their
own success, it was no surprise
that the FIA secretly envied the
promotional success of the IRC
series, which led to the promoters
being invited to turn their
attentions instead to the European
Rally Championship.
The IRC had the best of
both worlds, the benefit of the
structured technical regulation
systems instigated by the FIA,
coupled with the free spirit of
running events in the way they
wanted. It was with deep respect
to the way that the IRC ran
their championship that the FIA
officially recognised their event
calendar and with deeper respect
that the FIA saw how the ISC
systems could in turn develop
their own championships.
The motivational force behind
the IRC is European Events
Limited, which brought innovative
and imaginative television
coverage of events.
The series all started very
quickly in 2006, when the
then-named International Rally
Challenge got off the ground,
with a four round series that
encompassed events in South
Africa, Belgium, Madeira and Italy.
The basic plan was that the
IRC should be an alternative
series to the WRC aimed at
being attractive to the national
importers team level, so it was
decreed that World Rally Cars
would not be eligible. These
were the dying days for Group N
cars and the early days for Super
2000 and the initiative came at a
time when Fiat were dominating
the new Super 2000 scene. No
official IRC championship title was
proclaimed in 2006, but had this
existed, Giandomenico Basso and
the Fiat team would have taken
the prizes. Things were building
up for a full season in 2007.
The free organisational spirit
was in some ways a welcome
breath of fresh air to rallysport but
there were some confusions. The
biggest problem was a knock-on
to the essentially commercial
nature of the series. Events had
to contribute towards the costs
of running the series, particularly
the television coverage, and
drivers could only score points
in the championship if the
manufacturers of the cars they
drive had registered, which
means paid, for the right. This
led to situations in the early days
where Eurosport would ignore the
achievements of teams who won
the events outright, if they were
not registered.
With the world championship
calendar having difficulty to break
out of its established pattern,
the IRC presented the sport
with the chance of a completely
fresh style of calendar, in which
not only could new territories
discover international competition
but teams could pick and choose
which events they wanted to
enter. In this way the IRC brought
international rallying back to
places like Brazil and China, to
which many wanted the FIA to
return with the WRC. As global
economies tightened, so the long
haul events gradually became
less popular with the teams, and
despite a series title change to
Intercontinental Rally Challenge,
the series became based entirely
on mainland or off shore events in
European countries.
One of the great successes
of the series was the ‘No
World Rally Car” rule, because
this opened up the championship
to many manufacturers and
teams who were daunted by the
commitment of running cars in
the WRC, or where budgetary
opportunities did not enable them
to run a programme at a higher
level.
Six different manufacturers
scored outright wins in the
series (Peugeot, Fiat, Ford,
Mitsubishi and Mini – only two
manufacturers won WRC events
during the life of the IRC) though
often it was the manufacturers’
specialist suppliers such as
M-Sport, Ralliart or Abarth which
put their name to entries. The IRC
was a chance for aspiring drivers
such as Juho Hanninen, Thierry
Neuville, Andreas Mikkelsen and
Jan Kopecky to enjoy a regular
career programme on their way
up the sport, and a place for many
established WRC drivers, like
Freddy Loix and Toshi Arai, in later
life.
The concept of the IRC started
ABOVE: IRC founder Marcello Lotti (left) with Francois Ribiero, (Eurosport) .
BELOW: Colourful start to the 2006 IRC Zulu Rally South Africa
41
GPWEEK.com // 41
GPWEEK.com //
PARTNERS: